“I walk into a roomJust as cool as you please,And to a man,The fellows stand orFall down on their knees.”

“Don't let the man bring you down.”

“The city became for me the ideal of what I wanted to be as a grown-up. Friendly, but never gushing, cool but not frigid or distant, distinguished without the awful stiffness.”

“Hanging softly over the black Singer sewing machine, it looked like magic, and when people saw me wearing it they were going to run up to me and say, "Marguerite, forgive us, please, we didn't know who you were," and I would answer generously, "No, you couldn't have known. Of course I forgive you.”

“Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.”

“I’ve got a magic charmThat I keep up my sleeve,I can walk the ocean floorAnd never have to breathe.”

“Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.”